Federal report on Allentown school safety 'horrifying'

Opinion: What Allentown School Board needs to do for school safety

Is it any wonder more and more people are transferring their children from the Allentown School District to charter schools, private schools or home schools? Not only do they have to fear for their children's safety from fights, riots, knives and guns, but they also have to fear for their children's safety from sexual assaults.

The recent Justice Department report on the lack of oversight and investigation into sexual harassment and assaults in the schools is horrifying. The worst part is that the harassment is coming from staff members, not the students. There should be no question as to how these instances should be handled. When a staff member or student is accused of any type of sexual offense, he or she needs to be terminated or expelled immediately.

It seems that, as with the Catholic Church, these offenders are just transferred to another school and the "crimes" are covered up. There will be more and more lawsuits if this trend continues, which increases the costs to the district and ultimately increases our property taxes to pay for the settlements. The school board needs to get on top of this and take whatever action is necessary, no matter how drastic.